On November 8th, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the organization that houses the excellent Cody Firearms Museum, announced that Timney Triggers has decided to donate $500,000 to CFM’s reconstruction effort.

A little background here: Starting life in 1976 as the Winchester Arms Museum, the collection formally became the Cody Firearms Museum in 1991. It is located in Cody, Wyoming; houses an incredible collection of prototype and significant Winchester, Browning, Smith & Wesson, and other important firearms; houses a massive research library; provides a research service for factory records of Winchester, Marlin, and L.C. Smith firearms; and has recently made great strides to provide a more personal and accessible feel to the collection via an active social media campaign.

But they aren’t satisfied. The Buffalo Bill Center and CFM have proposed a roughly $10 to $12 million dollar reconstruction investment to bring the museum into the 21st century. Well, further into the 21st century. . The proposal would bring the displayed firearms from the current 3,000 assets to a goal of 4,500. And, in 21st century style, aims to have an unprecedented level of interactive displays. This is what Timney’s investment is going toward.

One proposed room of the Cody Firearms Museum reconstruction effort. Photo: Cody Firearms Museum

Proposed floorplan for the new museum. Photo: Cody Firearms Museum

Timney Triggers’ owner John Vehr told the Cody Firearms Museum,

I am happy to make this gift … because our industry must support and appreciate the benefits derived from having the finest gun museum in the world educate hundreds of thousands of people who visit [the museum] AND are new to guns, on the historical importance and the positive aspects of our industry.

The aforementioned Mr. John Vehr is the third-generation owner of the company, though the business has been operating since 1946. According to Timney’s website, after Mr. Vehr bought the company he “began to immediately invest heavily in technology, cutting-edge machinery, people and most importantly – a mindset” [of customer-centric service]. I know what you’re thinking: Will Timney’s experience here provide a learning experience in CFM’s finished museum?

Though all of the details of Timney’s investment haven’t been finalized, Cody Firearms Museum Curator Ashley Hlebinsky was able to share with us that:

[T]he museum will feature a mini science center full of hands on inter-actives that deal with both the mechanics of the firearm, including a section on the evolution of the trigger, feeling various trigger weights, and after market modification, and ammunition and ballistics. The gallery will also feature firearms simulators.

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited. Museums are traditionally removed from relationships with industry, and it would be my hope that CFM is pathfinding a way to bridge that gap in a truly modern educational effort.